


Cosmic Link & Serenity: DC Heroes

by iLucifxr



Series: Cosmic Link & Serenity: DC Heroes Collection [1]
Category: DC Universe Animated Original Movies, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Eventual Romance, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Multi, Past Child Abuse, Sexual Content, Sexual Harassment, Slow Burn, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:41:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25045549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iLucifxr/pseuds/iLucifxr
Summary: You've heard of the big heroes, right?Batman, Nightwing, Superman, Superboy, Aquaman, Aqualad, Green Lantern, etc.Oh, Green Lantern's not as big a name as the others, you say? (Bullshit, I say.)Well, you can add two more names to your list of the unheard.Cosmic Link, the heroine with a volatile personality and an even more unstable power. She's someone you wouldn't want to cross, be it on the streets or during a mission. Fortunately for her (and everyone around her) she's much better at controlling her temper (sometimes) compared to when she was a fresh little vigilante.Serenity, the protégé full of life and love. At least, after learning how to accept that she doesn't have to be the weapon she was bred for. A petite little thing, she appears as if she was a weening kitten when stood next to her mighty lioness of a mentor. It's about time she learnt how to love herself, her allies (friends) say.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Wally West, Batman/Soul Link, Bruce Wayne/Kiara Lincoln, Bruce Wayne/Original Female Character(s), Dick Grayson/Original Female Character(s), Dick Grayson/Selena Sterling, Kaldur'ahm/Wyynde, Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz (A big maybe on this.), Nightwing/Serenity
Series: Cosmic Link & Serenity: DC Heroes Collection [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1818451
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter One

**Okay, so.**

**  
Just thought I'd let y'all know I'll be following the Young Justice series with some of the Animated Movies included, but those won't be for a while yet. Also, I'll be using the designs from YJ for the characters. I loved how the designs were done in season three so Bruce here will have light toffee skin (it's described as: a medium skin tone with a warm undertone) and dark brown eyes. Plus that turtleneck? Ugh ¬,_,¬**

**\/ Here he is, this's the visual. I love him. u,_,u \/**

**Also, fuck you DC Timeline. There are like, 10 difference age sequences in the universe, so I'm legit just about to use the Pre-Flashpoint era for the character ages at the start of the story.**

**Dick - 14.**

**Bruce - 32.**

**Kiara - 22.**

**Selena - 13.**

**The rest you can just go look at the Young Justice Wiki website. Those are the ages I won't be changing. (Due to both confusion on my part and just not caring enough to change their ages too.) And yes. There is an age gap between Kiara and Bruce. No, things didn't start illegally. I also want to point out I'm British, and our consent laws are different to the US. You can legally consent when you're 16, as long as the age gap is 4 years maximum I believe. Don't quote me on that, though. But their relationship didn't start until she was like, 20.**

**So yay, no underage.**

**Also, Catwoman and Starfire will not exist in my version of the story. Sorry, but I just couldn't for the life of me feel anything but disinterest and a mild form of intense dislike for them. If you like them I respect that, but please don't ask me about them! Oh, and Barbara and Zatanna won't be in any way, shape or form, involved with Dick.**

**Now, let's get on with the story!**

* * *

**Welcome to Gotham City, where things that should be right, usually (always) go wrong!**

**. . . .**

**. .**

**.**

* * *

**Gotham City,  
July 4th, 12:00am.**

It was a rather nice day, any normal civilian would probably say to describe the current atmosphere. The sun is shining down, reflecting on the lakes within the park; the birds are flapping around the open blue sky, chirping away; children were running over the lush green grass as their parents watched on in fondness whilst grilling their sausages and drinking from their apple juice cartons; overall it as a really pleasant day.

Until the ice appeared.

Now, I know what you're thinking. 

The weathers changing, oh it must just be a bit of snow, mother natures once again fucking with us, etc.

Nope, for once it isn't the work of useless myths.

Instead, it's a criminal who either really hates meat or just wants to go out of their way to ruin family time.

With his very own family causing problems elsewhere.

I mean the bonding could've been done via monopoly, but staging public attacks works too.

Well, it did until said family ended up receiving one-way tickets to jail, curtsy of the residential superheroes.

As a father was just about to turn the sausages over on the grill, a crowd of people suddenly rushed past him and his children, running away from behind them as a beam of ice swept over them and froze them all stiff. Standing on top of a hill now covered in thick spikes of ice, a suited man with weapon almost Si-Fi-like stepped up and looking down on the family of three, pointed it towards them.

"Enjoying family time?"

The father, in an effort to protect his children, stepped in front of them and tried to help them run away but unfortunately the trio were too slow and as a result ended up frozen.

"My family has other plans."

Sliding down an ice ramp he created, he cocked his weapon up to shoot at the remaining civilians only for a bat-like boomerang to appear and send him flying, knocking him off of his feet and sending him crashing to the floor and cracking his helmet. As soon as his stood back up, he looked around whilst quietly muttering about 'Batman' as a cheerful- and slightly creepy- cackled broke out through the area.

Looking around to try and find where it came from, a sudden shadow above him caught his eye and as he looked up towards the sky, a pair of black boots made contact with his helmet, sending the figure flying and the Abominable Ice Man onto the grass. As the figure landed across the grassy area gracefully, Frosty Flakes stood back up only to look on in mild disappointment as it turns out it wasn't Batman, but-

"Oh, Boy Wonder. The bat sent you to drag me off to prison? Frankly underwhelmed."

"Great, but I'm kinda in a hurry here."

As the newly identified 'Robin' kept the criminal busy, a shadowy figure crept over quietly behind him, unbeknownst to the human Popsicle.

"... I wasn't talking to you." and with a point of his finger, the criminal turned around to look behind him only to greet the very being him wanted to fight in the first place. 

And be beaten within less than a full minute.

As it all went black for Mister Freeze, the last thing he saw had been the dark cowl of the Dark Knight.

Jogging up to his mentor, the young hero-in-training tilted his head up at the tall figure,

"Have we heard anything from Cosmic Link yet?"

Blinking in mild surprise at the Bats curiosity (Not that he'd admit that's what it was) the raven-haired teen shook his head and twisted his head, resulting in a satisfying crack.

"Nope. I guess we just need to listen out for the crumbling buildings and the screams of terror, huh?"

Shaking his head, Batman just sighed and turned around, before walking away with his little Robin in line.

They both knew that, with how Cosmic Link was, that option was most definitely the option more likely to actually happen.

**. . . .**

**. .**

**.**

* * *

**.**

**. .**

**. . . .**

Meanwhile, elsewhere in Gotham, a van had just been sent flying towards a gathered crowd of reporters.

"Oh god!"

"Look out!" 

"I don't want to die!"

Now, usually when a person is in danger, they do the sensible thing and run as fast as they can.

However, these reporters are nothing like normal human beings.

All of them frozen in fear but also determined to be the first to publish this current story, they very nearly became the next victims on the rampage of Kickster who was widely known for his habit of murdering innocent people by crushing them with his feet.

Until a stranger appeared and suddenly caught the van by its roof and spun around to fling it right back where it came from. Turning around towards the group of idiots, a light, but firm voice full of femininity drawled,

"Yeah, if you don't want to die before you can report on this, I suggest y'all leave before he turns you into human puddles." 

Growling in annoyance, the villain began to fling anything he could get his hands on at the figure, now identified as a young woman. A young woman who destroyed everything sent towards her with her bare fists. Running towards him all while avoiding the flying cars and the swinging street signs, she couldn't stop an annoyed growl from escaping her mouth. Slowly making her way towards the large brute, she unfortunately didn't realize until it was too late that-

BAM!

-He wasn't as alone as he appeared to be.

A porthole cover flew into just below her ribs and knocked her off focus just long enough for the main issue here to make contact between his current weapon of choice- a metal street railing, and her body which as a result, send her flying through two buildings.

As the glass shards cut her in a few places and the rubble from the bricks hit her limbs in a way which was bound to leave a few marks, the ash blonde-haired beauty let out a low groan as she tried to blink the dust out of her ultramarine eyes right up until she could hear a 'whooshing' sound. 

What the-?

Oh, son of a bitch.

The ally, the little fucker with skin as sickly pale as vomit green, could fly.

Great.

Of all of the days, she could get attacked by two meta-human maniacs they picked _today._

_'Well, looks like I'm gonna be late. sorry kid.'_

Grinning dryly, Cosmic Link stood up and, still covered in dust, grime and a little bit of blood, she cocked back her fist and charged towards the duo.

As it turns out, however,

Engaging in a battle with half of her strength, over a rather small and fragile bridge, might not have been the best idea.

**. . . .**

**. .**

**.**

* * *

**.**

**. .**

**. . . .**

**Washington, D.C,  
July 4th, 14:00PM.**

Standing in front of the grand 'Hall of Justice' located within the center of Washington D.C, were the Justice League members (well, mostly) and their protégés. 

Aquaman, Green Arrow, Batman.

Aqualad, Speedy, Robin.

All six were stood outside of the colossal base of the Justice League, well aware that three of their own were missing.

"Today's the day." With a small grin full of pride, Batman laid a hand on Robin's shoulder.

"Welcome to the Hall of Justice."

"Headquarters of the Justice League."

It seems that the elders of the mixed group were finishing each others sentences.

How cute.

"Aw, man!" 

turning around, the six of them came face to face with the two fastest men in the world. Who happen to be the last ones here.

The Flash.

Kid Flash.

"I told you we'd be the last ones here!" Just before the younger speedster could begin to lay into the elder of the two, it seems that Robin was feeling quite generous today. That, or he was just used to this happening on a daily basis.

"Actually, KF, Link's the last one here."

It seems that the elder of the speedy duo, found that rather amusing.

"Oh really? What a surprise, not. Who wants to bet that she's somewhere in Gotham, causing chaos as we speak. It's not like she's not done it before!" completely unaware of the danger his life is now in.

As the Flash began a humorous tirade about Soul Link and her many, many faults, said woman began to walk up towards them, hearing everything the rather foolish hero was saying. It seems, that the others, noticed her and blanched at the sight of her. If not for the state of her body, but the look on her face.

Promising impending doom.

"Uh, Flash?"

"But come on, how much trouble could she get in? Oh wait, it's Cosmic!"

"Flash..."

"That gal could pick a fight in an empty elevator, that one."

"Flash!"

"What?!" It seems that they were finally able to get through to him.

However, it was much too late for said speedster.

After roughly five minutes of complete silence, the red-covered hero turned around slowly.

Only to shriek and scurry away in fright as he saw the very same woman he was ~~mocking~~ talking about looking about as furious as a drowned cat.

Which wasn't that far off the mark with her.

Covered from head to toe in cement dust, dirt, a rather questionable sticky substance and many, many small cuts, she looked like she had been through hell. 

And that's not including the fact she was soaking wet.

It seems that no one, not even Batman himself, knew what to say to her.

Walking up to the Flash, she very slowly, very calmly, laid a dainty hand on his shoulder.

A dainty hand that could snap his neck like a twig.

"Let's get this over with. Inside. Now."

And with that, she marched past everyone and thus leaving a trail of water and cement bits in through the building.

Walking down the short bridge way, the crowd split down the middle as Batman lead the group just behind Cosmic Link, as the civilians began to gossip among themselves about the current, and new, generation of heroes.

“Is that Batman?”

“I see Flash and Flash Jr.”

“His name is Speedy. Duh.” Rolling his eyes, Kid Flash couldn't hide his annoyed glare at the usual mistakes and confusion.

“No, Speedy is Green Arrow’s sidekick.”

“Well that makes no sense.”

Just before they reached the doors to the hall, conversation broke out between the young heroes and their mentors.

“Ready to see the inner sanctum?” Green Arrow turned towards his student, looking at him through his domino mask.

“Born that way.” The young archer confirmed, with a sturdy nod.

Looking down at the shorter three, Aqualad gave them a small smile before speaking softly.

“I’m glad we’re all here.” 

“Have all four sidekicks ever been at the same place at the same time?”

Growling at the younger hero, Speedy practically bit his head off with a rough “Don’t call us sidekicks, not after today!”

“Sorry, it's my first time at the Hall so I guess I’m just a little overwhelmed.”

Chuckling quietly, Robin shakes his head as he asks one of his usual questions, the kind that Soul Link and Batman have grown rather fond of hearing.

“You’re overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn’t anybody ever just whelmed?”

It wasn't until they entered the hall and saw the massive statues dedicated to the founders of the League, that Robin understood.

“Oh. Maybe that’s why.”

As the younger group regained their senses and the elder heroes and the Flash made their way down the pathway behind then, Cosmic Link cut off from the others and made her way down to the League showers. Sending them a small wave, she called out to them all,

"I'm gonna go clean up, I'll meet y'all in there!"

Before running off and leaving through a different door.

"She never slows down, does she?" Aqualad asked.

"Nope." Such a simple reply, yet so obvious.

After being abandoned by the newer member among the Justice League, they arrived outside a large electronic doorway.

'AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY' was written across the metallic doors, in big, bold letters.

Watching as the large doors slid open with a 'whoosh' Robin and Kid Flash could barely contain their excitement as _the_ Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado appeared through the empty grey halls.

“Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, welcome.”

After greeting each of the children, Manhunter turned around, and lead the group inside through to halls towards the back of the base.

“You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked gallery, and of course our library.”

Walking into the main library, the four teenagers were in clear awe at the heaps and heaps of books- official League books- being kept here.

After being told to “Make yourselves at home.” by the Flash, Robin and Kid Flash practically flew into their chairs, getting comfortable in the plush dark decor, with Aqualad, ever the gentleman, sat in the seat across from Kid Flash softly. Speedy, on the other hand, chose to remain standing, keeping a hawks eye on the League.

As the original members of the league walked towards another door, they all turned around to look at their protégés as Batman spoke in his usual gruff, no-nonsense tone.

"We're going to have a quick debrief about the coincidence that four ice villains would attack different parts of the city on the same day. It shouldn't take long."

Watching as a fisheye camera suddenly appeared from a panel within the wall, scanning the League and their designation codes, Speedy suddenly burst out with a growl of anger as he began to shout about their treatment towards their charges.

“That’s it? That’s what you call a tour?! This isn’t a proper look around, it’s just a glorified backstage pass!” 

“This is only the first step, yes, but you’ve been granted access few others get.” Aquaman, ever the sensible one when Superman wasn’t around, began. 

“Oh, really? Have you seen that? Who cares which side of the glass we’re on?” It’s obvious that Speedy was beginning to seriously lose his patience.

“Roy, please, you just need to be more patient.” 

Great. Now he had Green freakin’ Arrow getting worked up, so much as to go as far as to use his civilian name, which usually wouldn’t be allowed at such an early stage.

Growling in absolute rage, he spat out at Green Arrow with more of his agitated bitterness along the lines of “What I need is respect.” Before he turned towards the other teenagers within the room, who were sitting down and watching quietly as the fireworks went off behind Roy’s temper. “They’re treating us like kids, or even worse- like we’re sidekicks. We deserve better than this, damn it!”

“If you want to be treated like an equal then you need to act like a grown up and not a spoilt little brat who's just been denied an extra snack after dinner.” Swiveling around, everyone looked towards the entrance as a much cleaner and overall happier Cosmic Link appeared, wearing a brand new version of her old mission gear and walking over towards the group, taking her place as right in front of Roy, almost as if she was squaring up to him.

“Who the hell asked you?!” Roy spat.

Narrowing her eyes, she clenched her fists and bit her lip before letting out a deep sigh, almost as if she was trying to refrain herself from hitting the little brat. With a deep scowl on her face, she let out a scoff before finishing tying her hair up into it’s usual low braid, ending at her hips.

“If you want to keep your position on the team, I suggest you behave. Or I could sort out your attitude for you, I’d be more than happy to give it a few tweaks.”

Before it could turn into a full out brawl between the two, Roy turned away so suddenly that Cosmic's surprised he hadn't gotten whiplash. Looking at the other three students within the room, he looked as if he half expected them to agree with him, only to be shocked when they kept silent.

“You’re kidding right? You’re just going to continue playing their game? Why?! Today was supposed to be the day, step one in becoming full-fledged members of the League. But they decide to keep things from us even now!”

“Well, sure, but I thought step one was the tour of the HQ.” Kid Flash, the ever lovable baby speedster, tried to point out.

Oh, if only he knew the full truth.

“Except the Hall isn't the League's real HQ.” Causing Green to look mildly surprised, and Aquaman as if you’d stabbed his pet shark in front of him.

Well, looks like little Roy _does._

“I bet they never told you it's just a false front for tourists.” 

Green Arrow’s eyes are practically falling out of his skull, as if he can’t believe his very own student, his pride and joy, was ratting him out to not just the brats friends but the League too. 

Looking directly at Green Arrow, Cosmic couldn’t help but level an unimpressed stare at the professional archer. 

“And this place is practically a pit stop for catching a Zeta-beam to teleport to the real thing, a satellite called the Watchtower. In space!”

Okay, this kid needs to learn how to keep secrets.

Turning around as if he felt daggers stabbing him in the back, Green took one look at Batman and Cosmic to know that he’d fucked up plenty. “I know, I know, but I thought we could make an exception.” which in return only caused their glaring to turn sharper.

“Or not.”

“You're not helping your cause here, son. Stand down or…” Ah, Aquaman to the rescue.

“Or what? You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son! I'm not even his.” removing his yellow hat- which honestly reminded the young woman of Peter Pan, he threw it to the floor and stomped on it in a fit of rage. “I thought I was his partner, but not anymore.”

Turning back to the remaining trio sitting down, he simply scoffed at them with disgust.

“I guess they were right about you three, when they told you that you weren’t ready. I’m out of here.” and he stomped off, completely disregarding Greens’ pleas.

Damn. That went well.

Letting out a sigh, Cosmic Link called out to Green Arrow with his real name, to try and make her case clear.

“Oliver. You can’t force him to accept this. He needs to learn that not everything can be received easily. It might do him some good.”

Looking up at her, Oliver released a discontented sigh as he rubbed at his face, probably to try and hide away his emotions. Giving her a small smile in return, he turned around and began to make his way towards the other door, in the back of the room.

“Yeah… thanks, Kiara.”

“Anytime, Green Bean.”

After a few seconds of silence, Kiara was just about to try and ease the tension when an alarm suddenly blared out around the room. On the large screen next to the doorway, a video of Superman flashed to life, wearing his on-duty outfit and a serious look on his- admittedly handsome, face.

Kiara's always preferred her men a little bit more... witty and willful.

"Superman to Justice League, there's been an explosion at Cadmus."

Looking towards the screen, the Justice League members walked up towards the computer, looking at the image of Superman as he spoke of the damage done to the Labs building.

“I’ve had my suspicions about Cadmus." Batman began, as Kiara walked up towards him and they looked at each other briefly. "This may present the perfect opportunity to in-” while speaking to the other members, Zatara showed up on another section of the screen with a distress call of his own.

“Zatara to Justice League, the sorcerer Wotan is using the Amulet of Attan to blot out the Sun. Requesting full League response.”

With a scowl, Kiara couldn't help but remember the last time she faced the irritating sorcerer.

He turned her hair neon green. Neon! It took a full month for her hair to turn back into her sandy-ash locks.

She was still bitter about it.

“Superman?” Looking up at the screen, Batman inquired the severity of the fire.

“It’s a small fire. Local authorities have it under control.”

“Then Cadmus can wait.” He declared, before pressing on a button within the center of the keyboard to cut the line. “All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara’s coordinates. Batman out.”

Standing up and walking over to their mentors, the three young teenagers looked up at them.

“Stay put.” Batman orders, as Robin gave him a look of shocked confusion.

“What, why?”

“This is a League mission."

“You’re also not trained enough.”

“Since when?” demanded Kid Flash, looking up at his mentor with irritation.

“I meant you’re not trained to work as a part of this team.” Flash replied.

“There will be other missions, when you’re ready.” Aquaman states calmly.

“But for now, stay put.” Batman glared at them, eyes clearly narrowed behind his cowl. Damn, what Kiara would give to be able to look into his dark brown eyes. 

Okay Kiara, don't get distracted now!

Looking down for a few minutes, their saddened looks turned into mixtures of irritation and anger as the Leaguers walked away towards the door.

“Glad you didn’t bring you-know-who?” Green Arrow teased Martian Manhunter.

“Indeed.” agreed the green alien.

Following behind Aquaman, Batman, and Flash into the other room, Red Tornado and Kiara looked at the three teens with a look similar to that of pity, before the door closed behind them.

“When we’re ready?” Scoffed Kid Flash, before looking towards the remaining two next to him. “How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like, like sidekicks!”

“My mentor, my King, I thought he trusted me.” with a quiet mutter, Aqualad looked down in mild sadness.

“Trust? They don’t even trust us with the basics!” complained Kid Flash, “They’ve got a secret HQ in space!”

“ What else aren't they telling us?”

“I have a better question: Why didn't we leave with Speedy?” Sighed Robin, as Kid Flash crossed his arms whilst looking down in anger and irritation and Aqualad in disappointment, before looking back up after remembering something.

“What is Project Cadmus?”

Shrugging his shoulders, the shorter of the trio looked up at the Atlantean. “Don’t know,” he admitted, before a smirk crossed his face “but I can find out.”

Walking over towards the large computer, he turned it on and began to type away at the massive keyboard, pressing different keys as multiple different codes appeared on the big screen, with flashes and folders showing up and denying access, as the computer so nicely pointed out with the bold words of 'Access Denied' highlighting the computer.

As he continued to type away, Robin laughed with a "Wanna bet?" before continuing his magic and as a result, managing to successfully access all the data the League has on Cadmus to far.

“Whoa, how are you doing that?" 

“It has the same system as the Batcave.” Robin called with a singing tone, as an electronic 'Access granted' broke the silence and multiple different files opened up, with everything from blueprints to what they serve for lunch. Codes upon codes appeared in the corners of the screens as Robin shifted through the more vital parts of information that they needed.

“Alright. Project Cadmus. It's a genetics lab here in DC.” As he looked through the open files, a frown grew on his face.

“That’s all there is, but if Batman's suspicious… maybe we should investigate.” Looking up at the Atlantean first with an almost pleading look on the parts of his face that could be seen, he then turned to Kid Flash with an inquiring grin.

“Solve their case before they do... it would be poetic justice.”

“They're all about justice.” Robin snickered.

“But they said "stay put".” Aqualad pointed out, sighing.

“For the blotting out the sun mission, not this.”

“Wait. Are-are you going to Cadmus? Because if you're going, I'm going!” As Kid Flash looked towards Robin, putting his hands on the younger boys shoulders, he gave a beaming grin. With a nod, Robin confirmed it and as a result, the both of them turned towards Aqualad smiling as if that itself would convince the older teenager.

“Just like that, We're a team on a mission?”

“We didn't come for a play-date.” Robin smirks, hands on his hips as Aqualad's face transformed into one of complete and utter determination.

And with that, the trio were off.

**. . . .**

**. .**

**.**

* * *

**.**

**. .**

**. . . .**

As the young heroes-in-training arrived at the labs of Cadmus, the flames were roaring away as they burnt at full power, destroying the building and compromising the structure. As the firefighters tried to get the blaze under control, cries of help from the staff stuck within the collapsing structure could be heard from within the building's higher floors.

“Help! Get us out!”

“Stay calm, we will get you out.” Called out one of the firemen, a megaphone clutched within his gloved grip.

As the scientists looked on in clear distress, an explosion went off and the impact of which sent the two flying out of the window, falling to imminent danger. As they descended, a yellow and red blur streaked across the parking lot, catching the falling scientists and throwing them up and on to the roof before falling himself, catching the window ledge and trying to hoist himself up and into the room.

“Hey, it’s what’s-his-name! Flashboy!” the same firefighter yells, looking up at himself with a proud grin, almost as if he believes he named the right hero.

“It's Kid Flash!” the speedster yelled down at him, grumbling about “Why is that so hard to remember?”

Smugly, Robin looked towards Kid Flash and teased with with a "so smooth" whilst Aqualad watched in mild disbelief at the recklessness Kid Flash showed. Mumbling to himself with a "Does he always have to run ahead" he turned towards Robin after continuing on with "We need a plan. We-" turning around to discuss it with thew boy Wonder, only to find out he isn't there anymore. Looking around everywhere, he called out for him as once again, Robin was making a grand entrance with his infamous cackling laugh,as he shot out his grappling gun and hoisted himself up onto the third floor, he worked on getting Kid Flash inside to relative safety whilst Aqualad used his Hydrokinesis, he took the water from the fire engine and manipulated it in the form of his blades, to create a water torrent and help retrieve the scientists from the roof before entering the third floor himself. 

Climbing through the office window, he looked up and saw Robin scrolling through the computer as Kid Flash sorted through the files within the cabinets.

"I appreciate the help" the Atlantean drawls.

“You handled it.” Robin snipes back. “Besides we’re here to investigate.”

“Poetic justice, remember?” Walking out of the office, the elder of the three heard the 'Ding' of an elevator within the distance. Walking down the long hallway, he saw that at the end there was an elevator with a figure quite unnatural to normal human beings. It was a blue-skinned figure with what looked to be a horn sticking out of it's forehead.

As the elevator doors closed, a pinging sound echoed through out the apparently not-so-empty building and thus attracting the attention of Kid Flash and Robin, causing the two to leave the office and walk up to stand beside Aqualad.

“There was something in the-”

“The elevators should all be locked down.” Kid Flash claims.

"Well, apparently they aren't." and with that, the dark-haired hero-in-training placed a hand each on Aqualad's elbow and KF's shoulder as he walked past them and closer towards the elevator, with the others following on behind him.

"This's wrong," Robin spoke as he brought up his wrist and turned on the holoscreen linked into his gauntlet, connecting him to the specs of the apparently rather expensive elevator. "Thought so. This's a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a three-story lab like this." 

"Neither does what I saw" added Aqualad, as he walked forward and with a grunt, forced open the elevator doors. 

As the three came closer and looked down, it was clearly _not_ a normal laboratory, if the very, _very_ deep drop was anything to go by.

"And that's why they need an express elevator."

With that, Robin took out his grappling gun and shot it up towards the roof of the elevator shaft, before jumping through the door and beginning his descent towards the bottom of the shaft with Aqualad and Kid Flash jumping and grabbing onto the rope, sliding down behind him. Watching as the number of floors between the surface and themselves increased, they reached 'SL26' before Robin's rope ran out.

Pausing in their sliding, they allowed Robin to jump and land on the narrow platform in front of the elevator doors, with Aqualad joining him after and then helping Kid Flash climb up after them, offering his hand to pull up the yellow-suited speedster. After Robin sat himself down in the ledge, he pulled up the security system on his gauntlets holoscreen and began to work on bypassing it as to not give away the fact that they were there. "Bypassing security... there. Let's go" and with that, they opened the doors and 

They stop sliding down and let Robin jump to the narrow platform with this level’s elevator doors. He makes it with ease, then moves left so Aqualad could make it. He does, then remains where he is and offers his hand to Kid Flash, who takes it and stands one the large segment of the platform with Aqualad. The Boy Wonder pulls up the system security. “Bypassing security.” he waits as his five little robin heads go from red to green. “There. Go.”

After entering through the door, they came across a gigantic hall full of odd equipment they've never seen before.

“Welcome to Project Cadmus.” Robin remarks, just as Kid Flash gave him a grin and ran on forward with his speedster speed.

“Kid, wait!” Aqualad tried to stop him from advancing, but his request fell on deaf ears as he kept on running. As he sped down the hall, he turned around to the others and watched as they followed on behind him, completely oblivious until he heard loud stomping coming from the hall adjacent to his own. Trying to slow down, he stumbled forward after loosing his footing and fell, sliding forward into the center of the crossed halls and looking up, he let out a startled yelp as he barely managed to twist his body to avoid being stomped on. Looking up, the trio looked on in shock as what looked to be mutated animal-like creatures roaming through the halls. Jumping up to run back to his teammates, the three of them crowded together.

One of the beasts growled at them in warning, looking down and revealing a smaller creature in the meantime. Said smaller creature hissed at them as it’s horns began to glow a bright red. with the larger one continuing down the hallway.

“No. Nothing odd going on here.” Aqualad snarked.

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With an irritated growl, Kiara ran towards a large van and jumped behind it just as a large blast of fire erupted from behind her.

Clenching her fists, she jumped out from behind the van whilst grabbing a hold of the nearest lamppost and pulling it from the cemented earth, running forward towards the blue-skinned magician and attempted to hit him with it.

"I see you're just as uncivilized as ever." the immortal pain-in-the-ass drawled as he sent a sudden wave of water towards her, nailing her in the chest and sending her hurtling towards Batman with an undignified squark as she hit him square in the chest, sending them both flying to the floor. Landing on top of his chest, as his arms wrapped around her to hold her steady, she let out a deep huff.

"Uncivilized? Me? When I get my hands on him I'll-!" trying to get up, she only fell backwards as the long, corded arms of Gotham's residential hero kept her to his body. 

"We need a plan, Kiara." Looking up in momentary shock, since he rarely if not never uses her real name whilst on a mission, she calmed down slightly.

"And what'd you recommend, Bruce? Nothing short of mighty freakin' Thor himself can strike this moron down."

Huffing slightly in amusement as she could easily guess he was currently rolling his brown eyes in exasperation (fondly, she could only hope) the Dark Knight nodded down at her once before letting her go and standing up, offering a hand to her. Taking him up on it, Kiara let him pull her up as they both heard a loud explosion. Realizing that the immortal decided to play around with the drainage systems. 

"Focus, Kiara. We need to take him down now."

"You're telling me, I've had enough of-"

Only for her to be cut off as yet another blast of water hit her in the face. Releasing a ferocious growl so fierce it made even the pebbles under her feet tremble, her aquamarine eyes narrowed into slits as she glared up at the floating red-eyed menace.

"New plan. Beat him to a pulp."

And with that, she ran off, leaving Batman- now identified as Bruce Wayne, to sigh and shake his head.

It's times like this he wished he was back in his Batcave as Robin rambled on about some science fair and Alfred fed them home-baked cookies.

'It's really no wonder her and Dick get on so well...' he thought, fondly about his protégé and lover.

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Meanwhile, as the boys were cautiously walking along the halls, a scientist with a low-riding brown ponytail and glasses; known as Doctor Desmond, could be seen working on a pink mixture in a dish, hidden inside a laboratory deep down inside the facility. Grabbing an eyedropper beside him which was laying beside him, he looked up at the screen with the DNA markers on it and used the eyedropper to suck up the pink liquid. Inside of the laboratory are other horned creatures; one looking like the one with glowing horns, and then another two who look a lot more insect-like, almost like a grass hopper or a praying mantis. He dropped the pink liquid into a test tube, which contains liquid and a blue crystal-like object inside of it, which eventually dissolves and turns the liquid a blue colour.

As he observed the blue liquid for a bit longer, a beeping from the office door sounded out through the room and with a 'whoosh' the automated doors unlocked, revealing a rather large man dressed in blue armor, with silver gloves, shin guards and a black belt, finishing the outfit with a golden emblem on his knees and said belt. Covering his head, was a golden helmet which only revealed a pair of blue eyes and tufts of red hair peeking out. 

Standing in front of the door, which closed itself in the meantime, he refrained from moving right up until Desmond, pressing a button titled '13' as the metallic cylinder opened itself up and revealed multiple other test tubes containing the same illuminating blue liquid as the one that Desmond had just created. Turning around towards the large male behind him, an irritated voice broke out with "Tell me, Guardian, what part of 'no interruptions' escaped your programming?" he snarked, just as the cylinder, labeled as 'Project Blockbuster' closed itself. 

"A G-gnome on Sub-Level 26 has reported in three intruders."

Rubbing at the bridge of his nose, Desmond released a deep sigh as he turned away from his microscope and looked up at the large man. "Did I miss an alert of any perimeter breach?" he sarcastically inquired, looking up Guardian with a rather belittling smirk.

Guardian replied with a tense and yet simple "No."

“Then the G-gnome’s confused. Whatever might occur in our lab above ground, the real Cadmus is the most secure facility in DC.” Desmond spoke tersely, turning back around to his large scientific microscope.

“With all due respect, it's my job to keep it that way.” Guardian pointed out.

“Fine, take a squad and go patrol.” Desmond tutted, rolling his eyes in distaste.

Both of them were completely unaware of the third individual entering the lab. Unlike the other humans within the room, he was more of a blue-skinned specimen, with ivory horns and darker patches of blue skin on their elbows. An anthropoid, to be more exact.

Oh, it's the same fellow as the one from the elevator.

"Perhaps Guardian should leave his G-gnome behind in the lab? If violence were to occur…” only for the doctor to turn around, silencing him with a glare and a blunt "No."

“The advantage of instant telepathic communication outweighs other concerns.” Desmond snapped, before turning around and taking the creature’s face in his hand, massaging the area on it's forehead right between his pointed ears and the tiny horns. The moment he stopped massaging the small creature, it's horns began to glow a bright, blood red colour as the other one on Guardian's shoulder began to do the exact same thing.

Standing to attention as his eyed widened slightly, Guardian looked towards the anthropoid with a blank- almost misty, lining covering his sky blue eyes.

"I need my G-gnome with me at all times." before turning back to Desmond and bowing, leaving the laboratory. Desmond, after watching Guardian leave, simply sighed before turning back towards his microscope, leaving the anthropoid standing quietly behind him.

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With a 'Whoosh', the red light within the center of the door turned to green, before the doors opened to reveal Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin standing behind it. As the doors opened and revealed what was inside the large room, their faces changed between looks of shock and awe. 

"Okay, I'm officially whelmed."

Inside of the room, are rows upon rows of blue glass pod-like capsules, all of which contain bug-like creatures similar to that of those which the trio came across earlier. It appears that they aren't yet ready, if the electronic beams zapping them continuously is anything to go by.

“This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world... the real Cadmus isn’t on the grid. It generates it’s own power with these… things.” Kid Flash realized, as he walked closer to the containers. However, all of the excitement has left his tone when he realized just was was going on. “This must be what they’re bred for...”

“Even the name is a clue. The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon's teeth into the Earth.” Aqualad agreed, looking around at their surroundings.

“And this Cadmus creates new life too.” Robin stepped up to the large computer that stood beside one of the rows of the large glass capsules, pulling out a USB cable from his gauntlet, connecting him to the database mainframe of Cadmus. A holoscreen appeared in front of them as Robin began to search through and filter the different bits of information.

“They call them Genomorphs. Whoa! Look at the stats on these things- super-strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons.” Robin muttered, stepping back in surprise and mild discomfort.

“They’re engineering an army, but for who?” Kid Flash questioned, to no one in particular.

“Wait. There’s something else.” Robin says, as another batch of information comes through to his gauntlet. Aqualad now steps up behind Robin, looking over his shoulder. “Project Kr... and Project Se." After typing away at his holographic keyboard, he let out a curse. "Ugh! The files triple-encrypted. I can’t-”

“Don’t move!”

Suddenly, Guardian ran into the room flanked by a whole different type of Genomorph than the ones in the capsules, or the one on his shoulder. These types are smaller and thinner than the previous versions they've seen, along with the fact they have tails and apparently have razor sharp claws, too. The Genomorph 077s, the same ones whose stats Robin found.

After managing to see who it was that broke in, Guardian looked on in shock and mild confusion. “Wait, Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash?”

“At least he got your name right.” Robin teased, whilst keeping behind Aqualad so that Guardian won't be able to see that he's currently trying to decrypt the files on Project Kr and Project Se.

“I know you.” Aqualad spoke out, catching the youngest of the trio's attention.

“Guardian, a hero.”

Standing tall, the large apparent hero looked on straight at them. “I do my best.”

“Then what are you doing here?” Kid Flash questions, confused.

“I’m Chief of Security and you’re trespassing. Although we can just call the Justice League, figure this out.”

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**Meanwhile...**

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"Get back here!" Kiara roared, sprinting towards the now-fleeing sorcerer, hell-bent on making him pay.

Currently, so far, the League have been able to disarm the blue-skinned immortal however, it seems that he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

Using the rubble around him, as well as the water from the sea, he was able to manipulate the matter into forming monster-like creatures, which he sent off to fight the superheroes. Kiara herself had to beat several of them back into dust before in a fit of extreme rage, uprooted the railing from the harbor and took several swings at the man-made monsters, wiping them out in one blow.

"It seems you've managed to develop a brain during the past four hours." Wotan drawled dryly, inciting a shriek of fury to erupt from the fearsome female.

"you little-" dropping the railings, she grabbed for the nearest object she could find- a post box, it seems, and threw it straight at him.

Upon hearing the grunt of surprise as the sorcerer lost his balance, the other members of the league took this as an opportunity to tag team him. Watching in satisfaction as the criminal was just about to be taken down, the grin that slid itself onto her face was blinding.

Right up until the sorcerer managed to escape last minute using a teleportation spell.

The grin slid off her face as her left eye began to twitch violently in irritation.

Feeling a hand clap her on the shoulder, she turned her scowling face to the right and came face to shoulder with her- for all of Batman's sins- best friend, Hal Jordan. Or as the public all know him, the Green Lantern. 

"C'mon Key, at least we got the amulet back, right?"

Releasing a sigh, she gave the taller brunette a slanted smile before rubbing at the bridge of her nose.

"I guess. I'd still have liked to beat him though."

"You know, for a League member, you're pretty violent."

"Shut it."

"See?"

"I said shut it."

"Make me."

And with that, the other leaguers watched as Kiara began to mercilessly attempt to drown Hal in the ocean. Aquaman and Green Arrow shared looks of amusement as Martian Manhunter looked confused. The Flash could be seen laughing as Kiara finally managed to dunk the green-garbed ring barer under the water as Superman and Batman each released a sigh at the childish display.

"Alright, enough!"

Only for Wonder Woman to appear, completely unimpressed.

Looking up, Kiara stopped her attempts of murder, as the dark glare dissolved away leaving an innocent, beaming smile aimed at the older woman.

"Diana!" She cheered, completely ignoring the spluttering man at her feet.

Kiara's look of cheer turned into that of a pout, as both her and Hal were forced to sit down on the curb of the street whilst Diana gave them both a speech on proper conduct befitting of the strongest heroes within the world.

Fiddling with the buckle on the cape around her waist, she could feel the cold air hit against her exposed stomach, just about ghosting over the large scar peeking out from just under the lower segment of her outfit. Looking down at her gloves, her eyes shifted towards Hal who, coincidentally, was looking right at her. As they made eye contact, they couldn't help but start sniggering, which eventually turned into all out laughter, effectively cutting off Diana and silencing her mother-henning and causing her to begin anew, this time about taking things seriously.

After her laughter began to subside, she leaned back against her gloved hands as she observed the street that was currently up-heaved.

_'I wonder how the brats are doing...'_

Oh, she had no idea of the current chaos the trio were causing.

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“You think the League’s gonna approve of you breeding weapons?” Kid Flash shouted, looking the helmet-wearing hero dead in the eyes.

“Weapons? What are you-” Guardian questions, confused. His eyes grew wide for a moment in shock just before the G-gnome’s horns begin to glow that same red shade they did earlier. “Ugh my head.” Doubling over in what looked to be discomfort, he groaned quietly until after a few seconds he stood up straight, glaring hard at the protogés as he stuck out his hand, indicating towards the trio. “Take them down hard! No mercy.”

As the G-gnomes released deep growls and sprang towards them, Robin jumped into action and stood in front of Kid Flash and Aqualad before throwing a smoke bomb onto the floor, pulling out his grappling hook and aiming at the bottom of one of the support beams, propelling himself upwards.

Trying to avoid being slashed in the face by the clawed creatures, Kid Flash dodged the attacks and after jumping at the wall, pushed himself off of it and aimed two fists right into the faces of two of the Genomorphs before propelling himself around the room and kicking at them one at a time. Aqualad, throwing one off of his shoulders began to fight and kick two of them at once. After removing them both away from him, Guardian suddenly slammed into his side and sent him flying to the ground, rolling until he stopped after hitting the wall. Noticing that Guardian was once again charging at him, Aqualad jumped up and began to fight hand-to-hand with the taller male, until he used his sorcery to fry the other male. Watching as Guardian fell to the floor, the little Genomorph on his shoulder flew off of him and landed next to him. As the smoke began to clear, Kid Flash jumped out and past Aqualad, who in turn followed him out of the lab whilst being chased down by the remaining Genomorphs standing.

“Way to be a team player, Rob!” Kid Flash bit out.

“Weren’t you right behind me?” he questioned, surprised, as he worked on completing his hacking of the express elevator. As the door opened the two dived in, followed not long after by Aqualad who just managed to escape from the Genomorphs following them. Watching as the numbers on the elevators screen rose up, the older two out of the three turned back towards the hacker and inquired as to why they were going lower.

“We’re headed down?” Aqualad bit out.

“Dude, out is up.” Kid Flash added, pointing upwards.

“Excuse me?” Project Kr, it’s down on Sub-level 52.” Robin drawled, offended at the notion that he didn't know what he was doing.

“This is out of control.” Aqualad sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, pacing in the narrow space that the elevator box provided.

“Perhaps- perhaps we should contact the League.”

As the elevator began to slow down, the trio grew tense and were fully prepared for battle. However, when the elevator finally came to a stop and the doors opened, they were surprised not just because of the fact that no one was around, but also because the hallways was _not_ like any other hallways they've ever seen. It was almost like it was _alive._ The walls were covered in a matter that looked almost as if it was a fleshy substance.

Creepy.

Running out of the elevator and into the odd hallway, Robin turned around to Aqualad, completely ignoring Kid Flash. “We are already here.”

Sighing to himself as a way to try and keep himself calm, the eldest walked up to the speedster and boy wonder, tensely asking "Which way do we go now?" 

Trying to keep everyone in high spirits, Robin let out a chuckle as he looked at the two organic-like hallways. 

“Yeah, bizarre-hallway one, or bizarre-hallway two?”

As they tried to decide which hallway to walk down and investigate, they ducked underneath cylinders a lot like trash cans, all with different shapes and sizes which were scattered around the hallway, making it took rather messy. Standing up, they were about to go down the second hallway until,

“Halt!”

Walking down the second hallway is the Anthropoid from before, in the elevator and the lab with Desmond. His horns began to glow the typical shade of red that the protogés were really beginning to dislike, lifting the cans telekinetically, before launching them directly at the teens causing them to have to dodge and after Robin attempted to throw one of his exploding disks at him, which his telekinesis stops, they start off running down the first hallway.

Stopping his pursuit of the three heroes, the anthropoid decided to wait for Guardian and other Genomorphs to exit the elevator, informing them of their direction. “They're heading for Project Kr.”

Deeper down the hall, a scientist opened the door from the inside and was on her way out, probably to try and find the head scientist, when Kid Flash came speeding around the corner and accidentally took out her feet, knocking her on to the ground. Sitting up kneeling, he looked around himself and as he turned he saw the door with 'Project Kr' embedded onto it. Watching as it was just about to close, he quickly grabbed a container from the corner of the hall and jammed it in between the door, stopping it from closing on them. Getting to his feet, he saw the other two running towards them and yelled out as warning "Hurry!" before jumping through the doorway and into the room, followed by Robin and Aqualad no longer than a minute later.

Aqualad, after entering the room, quickly kicked away the container and as a result let the doors closed, followed up by Robin hacking into the system and locking the scientists out indefinitely.

“I disabled the door. We’re safe.”

“We’re trapped.” Aqualad muttered darkly.

Looking around the room, Kid Flash noticed how dark it was but due to his goggles, he could see clearer than most. It wasn't until his eyes landed on the object within the space behind them, that he called out to the others.

“Uh, guys. You’ll want to see this.” Walking forward and hitting the only button within the center of the computer, all the lights within the room turned on, revealing a large pod within the center of the room, the label 'Kr' in the center.

“Whoa.”

Staring in disbelief, none of the teenagers knew what to say. Inside of the large pod is a _boy_ who couldn't possibly be any older than Aqualad himself. He had pitch black hair, pale skin and a white suit, containing the very same 'S' that Superman bares on his chest. 

“Big “K”, little “r”, the atomic symbol for Krypton.” Kid Flash realized, turning around and walking back towards the others. “He's a Clone?”

“Robin, hack.” Aqualad barked out, turning towards the younger.

Catching him off guard, Robin shook himself out of his stupor and turned around to the computer mainframe, plugging in his connector with a “Oh. Right, right.”

As he began to work on bypassing the system they had in place, Kid Flash walked around the area, observing it in case there are any nasty surprises right up until Robin reveals that he's found the information they've been looking for. “Weapon Designation: Superboy, a clone force-grown in… sixteen weeks?! It looks like he's created from the DNA acquired from Superman.”

“Stolen from Superman.” The Atlantean growled.

“No way the big guy knows about this.” Kid Flash agreed.

“Apparently this 'Solar Suit' allows him to absorb yellow-sun radiation 24/7.”

“And these creatures?” Aqualad questioned, looking down at the the creatures showcased on Robin’s gauntlet.

“Genomorph Gnomes, they're telepathically force-feeding him an education.” Robin relays sourly.

“And we can guess what else. They’re making slave out of, well, Superman’s son.” Kid Flash pointed out, disliking this mission more and more as it went on.

“Now we contact the League.” Aqualad stated, with there being no objections from the other two. As each of the sidekicks when to their communicators, they tried to get in contact with their mentors only to receive nothing but static on the other line.

“No signal.”

“We’re in too deep literally.” Kid Flash sighed, rubbing at his forehead.

"And now we're trapped." Aqualad scowled, facing the metal door in agitation.

"Well, it was nice knowing you guys." Robin snarked dryly.

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**Next time on Soul Link & Serenity: DC Heroes...**

**On the other side of the door, Guardian stood facing it as the scientist from before tried to open the door by cross wiring the system into unlocking the doors manually, as the Genomorphs stood beside Guardian almost protectively. As panting could be heard, Guardian turned around only to come face to face with Desmond and the Anthropoid.**

**“They’re still in there with the weapon?” Desmond shouted out, furious.**

**“We can’t get the door open.” Guardian tired to rationalize, as the scientist struggled with the wiring.**

**“Use your telekinesis!” Desmond turned around, ordering the Anthropoid with a point of the finger.**

**“I have tried to no avail.”**

**“Useless! Get some G-trolls down and muscle the door open now!”**

**“They're already on their way.” Guardian bit out defensively.**

**“You realize once we get in there, we can't ever let them leave.” Desmond growled, as if the notion of murdering children didn't phase him in the slightest.**

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**Hello, it's me. Lucy!**

**Now, for those of you whom read this story before I updated it- you might have noticed I changed some things.**

**Yeah, I just couldn't get into "Obsidian" and then- I found out DC already HAD an Obsidian. It was just my luck I planned to changed her alias anyway, but damn did I struggle. All of the good ones were either taken or didn't work with what I had planned. Luckily for me, "Cosmic Link" hasn't been used yet and I liked it well enough.**

**And then I changed it to "Cosmic Link" which- I thought fit better. If you knew Kiara's surname, as well as her overall personality you'd probably understand but- it just suits her more overall? Lincoln = Link, and she's got a power involving the cosmos so, Cosmic Link.**

**Thanks so much for starting to read this story, now, the first two chapters are obviously based on introducing the main characters and whilst they might not feature as much of Kiara and Selena as the others, I promise those two will be involved in a huge majority of this story! Now, here's a visual of my first baby, Kiara! Please don't mind the Chibi version, the other game/generator I normally use didn't have the clothing I imagined Kiara having so I just used the Chibi generator to design her.**

****

**So, what'ya think? Cute, huh!**

**Well, that's all from me for now folks, stay tuned for part 2!**

**\- Lucy!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Last Time On CL &S...**

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**As he began to work on bypassing the system they had in place, Kid Flash walked around the area, observing it in case there are any nasty surprises right up until Robin reveals that he's found the information they've been looking for. “Weapon Designation: Superboy, a clone force-grown in… sixteen weeks?! It looks like he's created from the DNA acquired from Superman.”**

**“Stolen from Superman.” The Atlantean growled.**

**“No way the big guy knows about this.” Kid Flash agreed.**

**“Apparently this 'Solar Suit' allows him to absorb yellow-sun radiation 24/7.”**

**“And these creatures?” Aqualad questioned, looking down at the the creatures showcased on Robin’s gauntlet.**

**“Genomorph Gnomes, they're telepathically force-feeding him an education.” Robin relays sourly.**

**“And we can guess what else. They’re making slave out of, well, Superman’s son.” Kid Flash pointed out, disliking this mission more and more as it went on.**

**“Now we contact the League.” Aqualad stated, with there being no objections from the other two. As each of the sidekicks when to their communicators, they tried to get in contact with their mentors only to receive nothing but static on the other line.**

**“No signal.”**

**“We’re in too deep literally.” Kid Flash sighed, rubbing at his forehead.**

**"And now we're trapped." Aqualad scowled, facing the metal door in agitation.**

**"Well, it was nice knowing you guys." Robin snarked dryly.**

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**With Desmond & Guardian, outside the lab...**

On the other side of the door, Guardian stood facing it as the scientist from before tried to open the door by cross wiring the system into unlocking the doors manually, as the Genomorphs stood beside Guardian almost protectively. As panting could be heard, Guardian turned around only to come face to face with Desmond and the Anthropoid.

“They’re still in there with the weapon?” Desmond shouted out, furious.

“We can’t get the door open.” Guardian tired to rationalize, as the scientist struggled with the wiring.

“Use your telekinesis!” Desmond turned around, ordering the Anthropoid with a point of the finger.

“I have tried to no avail.”

“Useless! Get some G-trolls down and muscle the door open now!”

“They're already on their way.” Guardian bit out defensively.

“You realize once we get in there, we can't ever let them leave.” Desmond growled, as if the notion of murdering children didn't phase him in the slightest. 

“Doc, these aren't your typical meddling kids You don't want to get on the wrong side of the Justice League.” Guardian started, trying to convince him that they didn't have to die. 

“Better than getting on the wrong side of the Cadmus Directors, believe me.” he muttered, before turning to Guardian's G-Gnome, ordering the- oddly cute?- creature about. “Contact the G-gnomes inside Kr.” And within minutes, the small creature's horns began to glow the same eerie red, as it seemingly began to concentrate on it's abilities.

On the other side of the door, within the lab, the G-Gnome was successful in it's telepathy, as of all three Genomorphs inside the pod being to hiss- almost as if they were casts, and their horns began to glow.

“This is wrong.” Kid Flash murmured.

“We can’t leave him like this, with them.” Robin agreed, nodding.

Turning around to look at Aqualad, the eldest of the trio nodded at them before looking back at the pod. “Set him free.” before looking at Robin and having him hack into the system.

"Do it."

The Boy Wonder didn't need to be asked twice, already working on the sequences needed to unlock the glass cage. It took him all but a couple of minutes before letting out a huff of air as the pod began to disassemble, the front of it with the atomic symbol carved into it, opening back as if it was an electronic door while steam began to leak through and into the air. The clone, standing in the center with his eyes still shut, looked to be around 16 in age, not far from Aqualad's own, with a head of thick black hair and Caucasian skin. He was almost an exact replica of Superman.

Without the cows lick, that is. And he looked a little bit softer than the original too. must be the human genes within him that Robin discovered when hacking and reading the files on him.

After a few tense seconds of pure silence, the clone began to clench his hand into a tight fist, causing worry to spread throughout the trio.

As the G-gnomes begin to hiss yet again, this time louder, the clone’s eyes shot open, revealing a pair of deep blue orbs exactly like Superman’s, if not for the suspicious glint reflecting from deep within them. Raising a pale eyebrow, Aqualad looked on and opened his mouth, before closing it as he didn’t know what to say to the… Clone? Boy? As he was debating on what to refer to the (technically youngest) life form as, the other wasted no time in launching himself at the Atlantean and tackling him to the floor, causing Robin and KF to flinch back in shock. 

The taller two rolled over each other twice, before Superboy ended up straddling Aqualad’s hips and began to punch him repeatedly in the face, managing to get in three solid hits before Kid Flash sprang into action, trying to restrain the half-human.

“Whoa, hang on a minute, Supey!” Kid Flash gripped onto his forearm with every bit of strength he could muster up, as Robin joined in and attempted to help out the second eldest defend the first eldest.

“We’re on your side!” Robin called out, trying to calm down the furious 16-week-old clone. Kid Flash lost his grip in the struggle which gave- Superboy, as Kid Flash dubbed him, the chance to pull back his fist and gave him an uppercut which sent him flying and sent him flying towards the other side of the room, right through a display cylinder.

Robin, in a last attempt at stopping the angry boy, moved his hand towards his utility belt and with an “I don’t want to do this.” he moved a smoke canister into one hand and released it right into the cloned boy’s face, which resulted in him releasing the Atlantean who managed to make contact with the Kypto/human hybrid’s stomach with a solid sidekick which in return sent him flying and crashing into the controls in front of his pod.

Robin, continuing his attempts at stopping the furious clone, quickly pulled out a taser from one of his utility belt compartments and tried to subdue him by releasing a large amount of volts directly into his chest. That, however, didn’t seem to work at all. In retaliation, Superboy grabbed onto the wires and yanked on them, bringing Robin forward and slamming the shocked teenager into the ground. Looking down at the smallest of the four of them, he placed his foot on top of his chest and began to press down.

If it hadn’t been for Aqualad, who after managing to come back around used his water-bearers to create a large water-made hammer and using it to catch Superboy’s attention, then Robin might very well have ended up with a foot-shaped cavity in his chest.

Bruce would throw a fit, if he found out his little protégé nearly ended up as a footstool.

After catching the clones attention with his hammer, Aqualad shouted out “Enough!” as he slammed the water-based weapon into his side, thus sending him flying right back into his pod- effectively smashing it into pieces.

The scientists are gonna have a hell of a time piecing that back together.

Running towards the fallen bird, Aqualad looked him over and tried to rouse him, with some success, as the boy let out a pained groan, until he fell back into unconsciousness. 

As he heard the heavy footsteps of the clone coming closer towards them, Aqualad stood up and stood tall, squaring his shoulders and stuck his right hand out, in an attempt to prove they didn’t want anymore chaos. 

“We are trying to help you.”

The boy stopped his assault, glaring at the Atlantean with narrowed eyes. After a few seconds of intense staring, the man-made half human suddenly leapt towards the other and attempted to hit him. Just about managing to avoid the flying fist, Aqualad dodged to the side and then shoved the clone into the wall, sending them both flying. After trying to land a punch of his own, which Superboy caught in his hand, he landed a solid kick to the older of the twos stomach, sending him flying into a roll.

The two began to trade punches, sparing aggressively and attempting to outdo the other. Eventually, Aqualad managed to pull ahead and land a harsh uppercut to his jaw and then a solid kick to his side. Throwing him off guard, Aqualad got behind him and grabbed the clone from behind, shocking the other with his Atlantean powers.

Despite it clearly hurting, the clone was able to use his superior strength to leap up into the roof to dislodge the Atlantean. It took him two leaps, but eventually he managed to knock the older boy unconscious, letting him fall to the floor.

Walking over the fallen form, Superboy went over towards the locked door and after managing to break through the metal with his Kryptonian strength, slammed it open, gaining the attention of Guardian, Desmond and the Anthropoid.

Smirking, Desmond walked past Superboy and looked at the unconscious teenagers within the room, walking towards them after praising Superboy with an ‘Attaboy’ almost as if he was a pet rather than a living human being.

* * *

**Later on, with Desmond…**

Sitting on a desk in one of the humongous laboratories was one of the small G-gnomes, watching as Desmond marched over towards the center of the large room, with seven screens descending from the ceiling as the lights faded until only the illuminations from the screens became the only light source.

"Dr. Desmond, you require an audience with the Light?" Boomed a deep voice, clearly a rather angry male.

"Yes. Very sorry to disturb you at this late hour." He murmured sheepishly, nothing at all like the rather vicious leader he appeared to be earlier.

"Just make your report." another man spoke out, this time sounding annoyed. 

"Of course, ahem."

Clearing his throat with a light cough, he began to describe the incident. 

“Well at Project Cadmus we had a small fire- nothing major, we still don’t know what caused it, but it seems to have attracted some… unwanted attention. Three sidekicks, Robin, Kid Flash and Aqualad somehow managed to bypass our security measures and were able to free the weapon- Superboy. He’s still under our telepathic control and managed to capture the attempted liberators. We’ve got the three of them contained and we don’t think the League knows that they’re here but… what do we do with them?” Finishing his report, Desmond stood to attention when the second voice spoke out.

"Clone them.”

"The substitutes will serve the Light and only the Light." the first voice agreed.

"And the originals?" asked Desmond.

"Dispose of them." the first voice commanded. "Leave no trace."

Smirking cruelly, Desmond nodded as the screens went blank.

* * *

**Inside the Lab, with the young heroes...**

Hanging suspended within pods of their own, completely oblivious to the fireworks going off in DC, the three young heroes were unconscious. 

_‘Your time runs short… you must awaken… you must awaken NOW!’_

“What?”

Opening his green eyes, Kid Flash released a shocked gasp as the other two woke up and had similar reactions. Looking around at their surroundings, the trio caught sight of Superboy, standing in front of them, glaring as per usual.

“What do you want? Quit staring already, it’s creeping me out.”

"Uh, KF, how about we don’t tick off the guy who can fry us with a look?" Robin piped up, snarking towards his best friend.

"We only sought to help you." Aqualad tried to mediate, attempting to calm everyone down despite his own racing heart.

"Yeah. We free you, and you turn on us." Kid Flash complained, still going strong with his obvious dislike for the clone. "How's that for grat-"

"Kid, please, be quiet." Aqualad scolded. "I believe our friend was not in full control of his actions."

As the conversation began to pick up it’s pace, with Superboy distracted by Aqualad and Kid Flash, Robin managed to activate a lockpick using a small mechanic built into the tip of his pointer fingers glove, attempting to pick the lock of his restraints. As he began to work on freeing his arms, he zoned in on the current topic of choice.

“What if… what if I wasn’t?” Superboy stuttered out, clearly not used to talking.

"He can talk?" Kid Flash asked, curious.

Clenching his fists tightly, he glared at the speedster and practically growled out “Yes, HE can!” with an emphasis on the ‘he.’

As Kid Flash looked on in confusion, muttering “Not like I said ‘it’.” Aqualad realised just what was going on with the cloned being.

“You were taught by the Genomorphs.”

"They... taught me a lot..." Superboy admitted, looking down at the floor with his patented frown. "I can read, write. I know the names of things." he lead off uneasily.

"But have you seen them? Have they actually let you see the sky? Or the sun?" Robin asked.

"Images are implanted in my mind, but no. I have not seen them." Superboy closed his eyes, looking away, almost as if he was embarrassed by this.

Aqualad, ever the practical thinker, decided to ask about the more important topic at hand. "Do you know what you are, who you are?"

Looking up at the Atlantean, his blue eyes seemed to light up with a small spark, "I am Superboy, a Genomorph clone made from the DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish… to destroy him should he turn from the light."

The trio shared a look, a mixture of worry and caution.

"To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration, but like Superman, you deserve a life of your own beyond that solar suit, beyond your pod, beyond Cadmus."

Falling back into a glare, Superboy scowled with a "I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!"

"Your home is a test tube." Bluntly stated Robin, "We can show you the sun."

"I mean it’s probably after midnight right now but- we can show you the moon instead?" Kid Flash interjected, only to be ignored.

"We can show you, introduce you to Superman."

looking up at the Atlantean, it’s clear they were beginning to sway the Clones mind- they were close to convincing him that Cadmus wasn’t his only purpose.

And then Doctor Van Dickwad appeared.

"No, they can’t." he sneered, his glasses falling further down his nose as he walked closer, being flanked by Guardian and the female scientist from before.

"They’ll be otherwise occupied. Activate the cloning process." Desmond demanded of the other scientist.

"Pass! The Batcave’s crowded enough." snarked Robin, as he glared behind his domino mask.

Looking up at the Dark Knight’s protégé, Desmond’s scowl grew deeper as he looked at the Guardian and all but shouted at him to return Superboy back to his pod- apparently they’ve fixed it- who in return simply glared at the security guard and shook his hand off of his shoulder. Hesitation clear on his face, Superboy stood still even as a G-gnome hopped on his left shoulder and began to glow, attempting to put Superboy back under telepathic control. Desmond, ever the lovely bundle of joy only a mother could love, began with his usual charming wooing.

"Don’t start thinking now. See, you’re not a real boy, you’re a weapon and you belong to me! Well, to CADMUS, same thing. Now get back to your pod!"

Turning around, the blank-faced clone walked out of the laboratory, with the metal doors shutting once again, locking the teenage heroes and the scientists inside. Within the pods, two metal sticks popped up and transformed into four needle-like contraptions. The prongs stabbed themselves into the chests of the teenage heroes, with electricity coursing through them, enough to painfully shock them.

As the needle-like objects began to extract their blood, their screams of pain cloud be heard through out the halls.

Superboy could hear them clearly, and yet... he wasn’t the only one.

* * *

**Inside Laboratory 0.2…**

A figure could be seen, floating within a pod that despite holding some similarities to Superboy’s, clearly wasn’t the same material-wise.

Whereas Superboy’s had been built with a material similar to that of Kevlar and then glass, this one is nearly all synthetic. The glass is reinforced with multiple layers, the hinges look suspiciously like limestone, and the main difference is that there isn’t a stand within it, but simply liquid. The liquid itself seems to have different components to that of regular water, the centre of the pod contains an almost gel-like substance while surrounding the gel looks to be a bioluminescent liquid which literally illuminates a silvery hue. 

Within the gel itself, suspended in animation, looked to be a young girl. 

This young girl, however, clearly wasn’t human.

She appeared to be very small, a petite young thing who couldn’t be any taller than 3’11" and seemed to be suffering from a minor case of malnourishment. As a testament to being underground for clearly a long time, her skin was almost translucent, which adding her head of shocking platinum white hair, small red horns sticking out of her forehead and the protruding light pink veins that run across her body to the mix, and she almost looks rather... demonic.

Despite the demonic vibe, however, she still looked to be rather cute.

As she slumbered on, screams of pain could be heard throughout the level.

Nothing happened.

The screaming continued to grow louder and louder, however, and as they grew, it seems they began to cause a reaction of sorts within her.

At first, it was a simple twitch of her pinky.

Then it turned into a shake of her entire left hand, soon become both of her hands, only to eventually become a full body spasm.

As her body began to shake, the alarms above her pod began to blare out through that lab. Eventually it attracted the attention of some scientists who rushed in and started to frantically try and access the situation.

"What’s going on?!"

"Why is it shaking?"

"Someone call Doctor Desmond, hurry!"

"We can’t, he’s dealing with the intruders and ordered not to be disturbed!"

"Damn it!"

The scientists, who were too busy panicking and trying to figure out what was happening to the girl, failed to notice that as the subject’s spamming increased, a section of the pod began to crack. With each spasm the crack grew, and grew, and grew, right up until it was large enough for the illuminating liquid the begin the leak out.

Bit by bit, the pod began to empty it’s contents on to the laboratory floor.

While this carnage was occurring, the blue Genomorph with horns from before, stood in the background silently, his long fingers holding onto a large piece of dark grey cloth.

_‘It is time, child. It is time for you to awaken...’_

And with that, a pair of brilliant red orbs snapped open as the pod finally shattered into pieces, the shards of glass and the liquid scattering throughout the room. The scientists, in their fear and shock, either attempted to escape the lab but slipped on the liquid and knocked themselves out, or simply passed out in fear alone.

Blinking in a hazed state of confusion, her doe-like eyes scanned the room until they fell on the Genomorph, who was now standing directly in front of her.

Biting her lip with her sharper-than-normal teeth, her small hands began to reach forward and with a strength unknown to her, she managed to manipulate the gel in some way; what was once a complete cocoon now had a large hole twisted within the middle of it.

Climbing through the gel and out of the cocoon, she vaguely noticed that she was stark naked as she walked over the glass shards in barefoot. Not seemly caring in the slightest at the blood she spilled as she walked- the blood which happened to be the oddest shade of silver- she looked up at the Genomorph who towered over her, blinking owlishly at him.

"I see you are awake, ‘Nékij’. I am the Genomorph known as Dubbilex." A deep, and yet soft spoken voice spoke out, as the being now known as Dubbilex looked down at the small... child.

Nodding, she opened her mouth as if to speak, and yet nothing came out. Closing her eyes, almost as if she was embarrassed, she turned her head to the floor. She had seemingly forgotten that she was unable to speak. Sighing silently, she began to channel her mind and used her Telepathy to communicate for her.

_"I’m... I know who you are... You spoke to me before..."_

"Indeed I did. I imagine you wouldn’t want to be seen in such inappropriate circumstances, I strongly suggest you wear this to cover yourself."

As Dubbilex spoke, he stuck his hand out and handed her the cloth, which turned out to actually be a cloak. Looking down at the cloak, she ran her hands over it, admiring the soft texture. As she went to put it on, she noted that it reached just above her knees, as it was made to fit her short stature.

_"I... appreciate your consideration. May I ask, though... what is the source of that awful noise?"_

"That would be the young heroes who attempted to liberate Project Kr. I believe they were also going to investigate yourself, after coming across files for Project Se."

 _"I- but why... I’m not- not- I-"_ watching as ‘Nékij’ began to grow frustrated at her lack of choice words, Dubbilex spoke up in an attempt to ease her growing distress.

"You and Superboy both deserve a chance to live, young ‘Nékij’."

Sighing in she looked on as Dubbilex suddenly stood up straight and turned around, intending to leave the room. Stopping short at the door, he turned his large bead around and simply stated "I suggest you wait here, if you want a chance at escaping."

Clenching her fists, all she could do is bite her lip once more and nod silently.

And with that, he left the room and she was left standing alone.

* * *

**With the others...**

Walking down the hallway was Superboy, with the G-gnome still situated on top of his shoulder. Despite being under the telepathic control of the G-gnome, his Kryptonian powers also extended to his hearing- making it above par. Aqualad, even though he’s currently being tortured by the electricity, still managed to find the strength to plea with Superboy. " _Superboy... you live. That means you have the right to decide your own future, to follow your own path... a weapon, or a person, only you can choose, but remember to ask yourself ‘what would superman do?’"_

Looking back in determination, he turned around and began to walk back to the laboratory with the three young heroes, up until he once again heard another voice, this time telepathically.

_‘Superboy... go left. You’ll come across another like you, a clone made up for the purpose that you were... go to her; take her with you... remember this however; she can not speak, only through telepathy can she communicate.’_

Furrowing his eyebrows, he started to speedily walk down the left corridor; he couldn’t explain it, but he did feel a sense of curiosity towards the apparent other clone.

Stopping outside of a laboratory door labelled ‘0.2; Project Se’, he forced open the door only to come face to face with a tiny pre-teen who was so small, she only reached up to just above his elbow. Blue eyes locked onto red, and suddenly it was like a sense of warmth spread through him.

"Who are you? Are you the other clone?" he asked.

 _"I am... they referred to me as ‘Nékij’. I don’t like it but, it’s all I’ve ever known. They fed you knowledge of the world; they only fed me knowledge of my powers."_ feeling the warmth spread up towards his head, Superboy found that even though he hates mind readers, he couldn’t be angry at her since it’s the only form of communication she can use. He’s also not adverse to the warm feeling he gets when she uses her abilities.

Not that he’ll be admitting that any time soon.

Sighing deeply, he looked down at her and simply told her to "follow me."

As the duo made their way towards the laboratory which contained all of the screaming, the young girl’s eyes narrowed slightly as she continuously bit on her lower lip. Seems like she’s picked up a bad habit, huh? Stopping just short of the laboratory doors, she stood off to the side as Superboy grabbed onto the metallic doors and forced it open with a large boom and then a crash.

Catching the attention of Guardian and Desmond, the latter of which making ‘Nékij’ narrow her eyes further in distaste, Superboy walked into the room and as he entered, the torture devices ceased their functioning. While Superboy distracted the scientists and the three suspended heroes worked on escaping, the little demonic teenager used her abilities inconspicuously to make sure all traces of their DNA were destroyed.

"I told you to go back to your pod!" Began Desmond, who ended up being cut off as Superboy swing his right hand out and threw the Doctor and the female scientist while his left send the Guardian and Dubbilex flying. "Don’t give me orders" growled out Superboy, as he walked back up towards the three heroes until he stopped right bin front of them, with ‘Nékij’ making her presence known to them all.

Oh, the look on Desmond’s face as he realised that Superboy wasn’t the only one who had escaped.

"You- what are you doing out?!" Desmond spluttered out, only flinching slightly as her crimson orbs locked onto him.

 _"I’m done being your toy, I won’t be an experiment anymore!"_ A harmonic voice drifted out, filling the three heroes with the same warmth that Superboy felt previously.

Walking up past the fallen doctor, she stood beside Superboy as the three protégés stared at them; Kid Flash in a sense of disbelief, Aqualad in a minor case of joy that Superboy came back and Robin,

Well. His eyes refused to leave the form of the small white-haired teenager.

"You here to save us or fry us?" Kid Flash asked, with a hint of both curiosity and caution in his tone.

Superboy glared at him for a few seconds, before easing up and even grinning slightly, "Huh. I don't seem to have heat vision, so I suppose helping is my only option."

Robin managed to free himself from the restraints, climbing out of his pod as it began to open up. "Ahh. Finally!" he sighed, "I’m lucky Batman isn'there. He'd have my head for taking so long."

"Seriously, that's what you're worried about?" Kid Flash deadpans. "The whole League will have our heads after tonight." he cried out.

Robin ignored him and went over to the control station. Hitting one of the buttons, which released the restraints from Kid Flash and Aqualad and opened their pod doors. He turned to Superboy and told him, "Get Aqualad. I'll get Kid Mouth."

"Don't you give me orders either." Superboy growled but did as he was asked.

"Thank you." Aqualad muttered to him, as Superboy caught him since the torture left him a bit weak-kneed.

Superboy nodded, as ‘Nékij’ walked a bit closer to them.

"Who’re you, if I may ask?" Inquired Aqualad.

_"I’m... what you all know as Project Se. I don’t have a name..."_

"Of course it doesn’t have a name," scoffed Desmond, "She’s nothing more than an experiment, a weapon, she’s our ‘Nékij’"

 _"Don’t call me that!"_ Scowled the girl, her frown causing her telepathic demand to send an icy chill through those who heard it.

"Se’s the symbol for the component ‘Selenium’ right? It’s derived from the name ‘Selene’ which means ‘moon’ in Greek... how about we call you something related to the moon?" Inquired Robin, looking her directly in the eyes.

Just before she could respond, however, Kid Flash interjected with "Maybe we could talk about this after we get out of here?"

As they all began to run away- well, the four boys began to run while ‘Moony’ as she’s been temporarily dubbed as, shockingly enough began to float. High enough so that she’s off of the floor but low enough so that her cloak doesn’t rise up and she doesn’t accidentally flash anyone.

"You- you'll never get out of here! I'll have you back in pods before morning." Shouted Desmond, looking at the backs of the escaping figures.

"That guy is not whelmed." Robin joked, "Not whelmed at all."

"What is it with you and this whelmed thing?" Kid Flash asked.

Standing up with an angry grimace as he observed the destroyed laboratory, Desmond scowled down at the G-gnome on his shoulder before ordering to activate all of the Genomorph’s within the Cadmus building. The glowing red horns began to emit the order, as all of the cloned weapons began to wake up, intent on carrying out their orders. As the five make their way down the corridors, the large bumps which had once been a creamish colour began to glow and turn red- the same colour as the G-gnomes horns.

“We’re still 42 levels underground... if we can just make it to the elevator..." Grunted Aqualad, clearly still a little bit uncomfortable after the torture session.

Electricity on a water-habitant? Probably not the best combination.

As Aqualad trailed off his though process, at least 5 large G-trolls appeared from one side of the corridor and from the other side, the G-elves crawled out from the red pods- effectively trapping the quintet.

The G-troll in the front of the others took a swipe at the group, bringing down his humongous clenched fist and crushing the floor where it landed. Luckily for Moony and Kid Flash, they managed to avoid it. Superboy, now officially annoyed, jumped to towards the G-troll and socked it in the jaw, sending it flying to the floor. Unfortunately for him, he then ended up surrounded by another three and got caught under one of their fists, being pinned down.

As Superboy got pinned by one of them, another went after Aqualad, swinging its head in his direction in an attempt to land a hit with it’s large horns. Aqualad managed to dodge it as Robin gained the opportunity to grab it by the horns, gaining its attention while they worked on bringing it down, with Moony flying up and around it. 

Moony, flying around above one of them, managed to trick it into turning around too fast for it’s stubby legs to handle, causing to to stumble over and fall directly on top of a group of the G-elves, crushing them. Watching as Kid Flash drove one of them into the wall and ran back to where Aqualad and Robin were, Moony floated down right beside them.

Superboy, who managed to free himself from the G-troll that trapped him, was seen fighting three of them at once, using his superior strength to send them crashing into the walls and the ceiling, causing the corridor to shake and some dust from the crumbling ceiling to fall down.

"Superboy, our goal is to escape, not to bury ourselves down here!" Called out the Atlantean, in an attempt to be heard by the others.

Superboy, turning to the other four, growled out a "You want to escape?" with a furious scowl as he grabbed one of the unconscious G-trolls and swung it around with an almost deranged battle cry, effectively slamming it into another oncoming two G-trolls.

While the others went about fighting the oncoming Genomorphs, Aqualad ran over to the elevator and began to pry it open. Kid Flash and Robin helped him out, the tree of them looking down at the twelve story drop, while Moony and Superboy continued to fight to provide them with some time.

The five of them jumped out into the column, Robin using his grappling hook to reach the 15th floor as KF grabbed onto it alongside him, Moony flew up next to them and Superboy, holding onto Aqualad, attempted to fly alongside her. He managed to jump up to the 9th floor before they both began to fall.

Superboy must not have Superman’s ability to fly... bummer.

Thinking quickly, Robin shot out a hook into the wall which Aqualad managed to grab onto, stopping them both from falling further down.

"Superman... he can fly, so why can’t I?" Superboy questioned, his tone laced with confusion and mild sadness.

"I don’t know, but it looks like you can leap really tall buildings in a single bound, that’s still cool." Tried to comfort Kid Flash.

Looking towards the Atlantean who in the end managed to save them both, he murmured a quiet "Thank you." to the teenager.

Robin and Moony, the both of them hearing a whirring sound from above, looked up only to see the elevator falling down, fast. Robin, ever the quick thinker, called out "Guys, this’ll have to be our exit."

Superboy and Aqualad forced the 15th floor doors open, allowing the fivesome to jump through and escape the column just before it could crush them to smithereens.

The resounding crash of the elevator doors being forced open had unfortunately attracted the attention of the G-elves and a G-troll, who wasted no time in appearing in front of them. The three of them began to run down the first corridor they found, but they didn’t have a clue on where they were heading. 

_"Turn left, brother."_ a voice, not too dissimilar to a certain blue horned Genomorph, called out via telepathy to Superboy.

Despite his initial confusion, Superboy called out to the other four with a "Go left, left!" which had, eventually been followed up with a "Right!"

As the five of them turned right when ordered, they came across a dead end, which luckily enough happened to have an air vent only a few feet above the floor.

"Great directions, Supey." Kid Flash sarcastically sniped, ignoring the irritated pout Moony sent his way "Are you trying to get us re-podded?"

"No. I- I don't understand." Superboy called out quietly, looking lost and mildly scared.

 _"It- it’s okay... you did your best."_ Moony stuttered out, in an attempt to make him feel better.

"Don't apologize. This is perfect!" Robin soothed, excitedly.

By the time the G-troll and the G-elves arrived at the end of the corridor, the group of five were gone, the only thing left being the vent over as it was laid against the wall- the only thing that reveals where they went.

Crawling through the vents, Robin had Moony go first (no, he doesn’t have a crush on her! Not at all! ((Okay, maybe a small hint of like-like...)) with Robin following after her, and then Aqualad behind the Bat’s partner, with Kid Flash and then Superboy following behind. 

"We’ll never get out at this rate." Whined Kid Flash.

"Shh, listen." Cut off Superboy, as the group went silent.

Following them through the vent system were the G-elves, gaining speed as the quintet were forced to move faster.

Running down the hallway were Desmond, Guardian and Dubbilex, the former of which holding a tablet which happened to have the schematics of the Cadmus building on the screen. 

"Someone, I’d wager Robin, managed to hack into our systems and deactivate the internal security cameras, but he neglected to turn off the motion sensors."

Watching the screen, he saw as a group of five dots followed along one of the routes, with two groups of three not far behind them, leading the three of them and the other Genomorphs towards one of the restrooms. "They’re all coming out of here, we have them cornered." Sneered Desmond, a nasty grin taped onto his face. As they stood waiting, a rumbling sound could be heard echoing through the ventilation shaft, coming closer and louder when suddenly the vent cover popped off,

And the G-elves fell through in a pile onto the tiled flooring.

There wasn’t any sign of the escapees.

Desmond, glaring darkly, could only mutter "He hacked the motion sensors."

"I hacked the motion sensors." Robin quipped, a mischievous smile splitting his face in two, as he typed away on his hologlove.

"Sweet." Kid Flash chimed in.

"Still plenty of them between us and out." Robin sighed, smile gone from his features.

As they all exited from the ventilator system, one by one they landed on the floor. Moony using her flying to gracefully land on her two bare feet, Robin using his athletic abilities, Kid Flash falling flat on his face and Aqualad and Superboy simply hoisting themselves out. Standing up after his less-than-graceful fall, Kid Flash pulled on his goggles and turned towards the emergency exit door, stating "But now I’ve finally got room to move," and ran off up the stairwell with a cocky smirk. Clearing the way by knocking the G-elves out of the way, Kid Flash made a path for Superboy, Aqualad, Moony and Robin- the later of which still working on his hacking of the building systems.

"There’s more of them behind us." Robin sounded out, alerting Superboy who began to take care of them.

By slamming his foot down and causing the entire staircase behind them to collapse, taking the G-elves with it.

As they continued their assent to the top floor, Guardian, Dubbilex, Desmond and a few Genomorphs were riding up within the express elevator in an attempt to cut off their escape. "We’ll cut them off at sub-level one," Guardian began, as Desmond nervously bit his lip. "We’d better, or else the board will have our heads- my head."

Slamming his hand down on the stop button, Desmond walked out of the elevator and told them that he needed to grab something from ‘Project Blockbuster’ in case they needed it. "I’ll meet you all at sub-level one!"

Still running at full speed, the young speedster saw the door in front of the group read as ‘S-B 1’ and continued towards it- right up until an alarm boomed out and two massive metal doors closed right in front of them, Kid Flash’s speed causing him to crash right into them with an "Oh, crud." leaving his mouth as he fell backwards and landed on his backside.

Moony, unable to help it, released a silent giggle as she watched the scenario, her shoulders shaking in mirth.

"We’ve been cut off from the street." Aqualad bitterly grumbled, after they all reached the doors.

"Thanks, my head hadn’t noticed." KF grimaced, rubbing the front of his temple from where it hit the door.

Superboy walked up to the large doors, bypassing Kid Flash who managed to pick himself up, and threw a punch towards the doors. Which did nothing, not even leaving a scratch. He began to try and pry it open, with Aqualad joining in and pulling on the other half, but neither of them were able to open it. Moony, showcasing a power they hadn’t yet seen until now, encased her hand with a silvery mist-like matter and attempted to melt a hole in the doors. She had been able to leave a fist-shaped indentation, and yet that was all.

Robin, typing away on his gauntlet, grumbled "Can’t hack this fast enough."

When two G-trolls growled and appeared around the corner, Robin looked up and noticed a door on his right and with a "This way!" he turned around and kicked open the door, small enough for them to run through and yet too small for the G-trolls to chase after them. Sighing in relief, their escape was short-lived as in front of them were a group of G-elves and a lot of G-gnomes, two more G-trolls and Guardian.

Whipping out his water-bearers, Aqualad dropped into a fighting stance as Moony began to flora and the mist-like matter appeared around her fists. Robin pulled out a pair of batarangs, Superboy fell into his fighting stance and Kid Flash crouched down to the floor.

The horns of one of the G-gnomes, the one sitting on Guardian’s shoulder, began to glow which in return managed to set up a linked chain, connecting all of the Genomorphs together in an attempt against the heroes. 

The five of them dropped their battle stances- Aqualad, Kid Flash and Robin falling to the floor as Moony and Superboy sunk to their knees.

"Perhaps for the sake of all Genomorphs, our brother Superboy and our sister should make up their own minds." Dubbilex telepathically communicated to the other Genomorphs, causing Superboy’s eyes to widen and Moony’s to narrow in mild fear.

"It was you." he whispered.

 _"You were the one who woke me up..."_ Moony remembered.

"Yes, brother. I set the fire and lured your new friends into Cadmus, then woke them when they were in danger-"

"And guided me." Superboy finishes. "Why?"

"Because you two are our only hope, the Genomorph heroes. You two will blaze a trail for all of our brothers and sisters, showing us the way to freedom." Dubbilex revealed.

Groaning, Guardian gripped his head as the G-gnome jumped down from his shoulder, question "What’s going on?" as Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash began to wake up.

Guardian groans and grips his head, then the G-gnome jumps from his shoulder. "What's going on?" he questions, stirring Aqualad back into consciousness.

"What do you choose, brother, sister?" Dubbilex asked them both.

"Freedom." Superboy replied, as Moony nodded her head in agreement.

"It feels like a fog’s lifting." Guardian moaned out.

As Aqualad inquired about how Guardian’s mental state was, he told them to "Go, I’ll deal with Desmond."

"I think not."

Only for the aforementioned Doctor to appear suddenly, prowling closer to them.

"Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus." he stated, as he pulled a vial containing blue liquid out of his lab jacket pocket and drunk it all in one mouthful.

Moving in front of the teenagers in an attempt to protect them from the deranged Doctor, he had them back up as Desmond began to physically transform into something... inhuman. His veins began to pop under his skin as his body began to mutate, growing larger and larger with his skin tearing off alongside his shirt, his sclera turning pitch black and his eyes turning red- not a beautiful crimson like Moony’s, but a muted, almost muddy colour. Finally, his skin turned a sickly eggplant purple with an undertone of grey. Growling, he turned towards the children while breathing heavily.

 _"I- that’s... so creepy..."_ Moony gulped, watching in disgust and minor fear.

"Everyone back!" cried out Guardian as he stuck out his hands and proceeded to run at the no-longer-human Doctor who simply swept him to the side, throwing him back into a wall.

Glaring harder at Desmond- or now Blockbuster as Guardian referred to him as- and charged at him.

The two began to swap blows to the head, Superboy landing some uppercuts and Blockbuster striking back with hits to Superboy’s head. As Superboy went to jump on him, Blockbuster pounced and sent the two of them flying straight through the ceiling, causing a massive hole to appear thus allowing the remaining four to venture up to the ground floor.

"Okay. That's one way to bust through the ceiling." Robin uttered, before using his grappling hook to pull both himself and Kid Flash up through the hole with Aqualad using his Atlantean physiology to jump up through it, Moony not far behind him and ‘levitating herself up and through the gaping hole.

"You think Lab-coat planned that?" Kid Flash asked, as to which Aqualad replied with "I doubt he is planning anything anymore."

With all five of the teenagers now up on the main floor, albeit one of them was currently getting his ass handed to him, the three young heroes and the young clone watched as despite managing to free himself from Blockbusters grip, the hulking monster grabbed ahold of Superboy’s legs and swung him around, sending him flying into Aqualad as Robin and Kid Flash narrowly avoided being caught in the crossfires.

Robin, helping Superboy to his feet, caught the attention of Blockbuster and if it hadn’t been for Moony distracting him by sending her plasma beams at the purple freak, then he very well might have crushed them all by now. Providing the other four with enough time to get into the right mind frame, she was finally able to stop using her powers since they were beginning to tire her out. Kid Flash used his speedy abilities to run straight into Blockbuster and slide under him, staying crouched behind him while Superboy and Aqualad both landed a punch each to his face which sent him flying- tripping over Kid Flash.

"Learned that one in kindergarten." the redhead smugly stated.

Robin leapt over the speedster, throwing three disks at the ex-Doctor as Moony sent off three plasma balls of her own. Despite being able to avoid the disks, the plasma balls nailed him directly onto his back.

Seeing Superboy standing over him, Blockbuster jumped and and slammed the Kryptonian clone into one of the structural pillars, catching Aqualad and throwing him onto the ground- who let out a pained cry- as he tried to help out Superboy. Throwing Superboy once again into another pillar, the physically-a-teenager clone fell to the floor while bringing said pillar down on top of him.

Moony, in an attempt to distract him from the others, kept shooting plasma beams and balls at Blockbuster who kept swinging his arms out at her, trying to bring her down and out of the air. Managing to get a lucky hit in, he sent her rolling through the air and landing at Robin’s feet- who in return helped her sit up.

Kid Flash, running in with his super-speed, grabbed onto one of Blockbuster’s arms as Aqualad managed to get back up just in time to avoid the monsters foot, only to be thrown directly into the Atlantean, sending them both falling back on top of each other, Kid Flash falling to the ground and Aqualad leaning against a pillar,

Only for Blockbuster to punch him through it.

With so many of the support pillars being destroyed the building began to shake as the junctions between the floors and the pillars began to crack and give way.

"Of course." the Boy Wonder noticed, using his hologlove to find the schematics for the main floor. When he realised a way they could win, he called out to his best friend, telling him to get close to him. "KF, get over here!"

Jumping to his feet, Kid Flash abided by Robin’s order and ran over to assist while Aqualad and Superboy were practically just keeping the enemy busy at this point; Blockbuster had Aqualad’s face in his palm and was just about to uppercut him until the Atlantean managed to form a small shield last minute with his water-bearers, just about managing to block him. Superboy, seemingly the type who doesn’t appear to learn very well, charged at Blockbuster only to once again be used as a living rag doll, being thrown into yet _another pillar._

While those two were keeping him busy, Robin, Moony and Kid Flash were finalising their plan of action.

"Got it?" Robin asked, with Kid Flash replying with an "I got it" and Moony with a small nod of her head.

"Go!" Robin commanded, watching as the speedster set their plan into motion, zooming off into the same direction as Superboy and Blockbuster. Zipping up and over so that he’s close to Blockbusters right side, he then changed direction so he could run back and attack Blockbuster with a high speed attack. 

Blockbuster, in a fit of rage, threw Superboy down to the floor and began his pursuit of the speedster, punching his large fists into the floor. As KF worked on distracting the bulky menace, Superboy had the time to regain his focus and get back up on his feet.

"Superboy, Aqualad!" Robin yelled.

Catching their attention as Moony and Kid Flash worked on leading him over to the other pillars, Kid Flash taunted Blockbuster by calling out to him with "Come and get me, you incredible bulk!" which in hindsight, probably wasn’t the best idea. After leading the monster towards a pillar, Kid Flash jumped out of the way to avoid the ex-doctors oncoming fist- Kid Flash managed to make him smash the pillar, but the rubble from said pillar caught him on the back- sending KF flying. As Kid Flash kept trying to avoid him and failed which in return lead to him being knocked around, Moony tried to alleviate the situation by helping distract the purple disaster.

Robin had just finished explaining the plan, pointing to the two pillars that needed taking out- he directed them to which pillar was whose responsibility, taking one as his own as well. As the five of them began to take out their set pillars, all while avoiding Blockbuster, Robin began to draw out an **x** on the floor, in the center of the hall. Aqualad used his water-bearers to create a large puddle which Kid Flash lead Blockbuster towards and when he grew close enough, Superboy landed a heavy punch which knocked him down. After Kid Flash was in the clear, Aqualad used his Atlantean sorcery to generate electricity, electrocuting Blockbuster.

As Aqualad released his sorcery, the disks which Robin threw into the last pillars exploded. With a "Move!" ordered by Robin, the five of them began their escape. The roof, being too heavy to handle, fell faster than they thought. In an attempt to shield each other, Robin tucked Moony under his chest, with Aqualad moving to cover him and then Superboy doing the same with Kid Flash as the ceiling collapsed on top of them.

After the dust had settled and they were sure nothing else would come down, Superboy punched a piece of the rubble which pinned them down, effectively freeing them as it created a hole when it dislodged. Moony herself used her silvery matter to melt a large hole in the rubble that covered Robin, Aqualad and herself. The five of them were covered in bruises and each of their outfits were in a mixed state of disarray- ranging from a few rips and tears like Robin’s and Kid Flashes to almost completely obliterated like Moony’s. Luckily, her outfit just about covered her private areas.

Aqualad, breathing rather heavily, let out an exhausted sigh of relief as he exclaimed "We- we did it..."

"Was there... ever any doubt...?" Robin sassily grinned, looking towards Kid Flash as they shared a high five.

Which later had them wincing as they held their respective injured areas.

Superboy and Moony, shared a look before they walked over towards the fallen Blockbuster- pinned and unconscious by the looks of things. As Kid Flash called out to them with a "See?" the cloned duo looked over at him as he in return pointed up towards the sky with "The moon." falling off of his tongue.

Looking up at the moon, they couldn’t hide their awe as they took it all in. While Moony was looking at the moon, however, Robin was looking at her, contemplating clear on his face. Suddenly, as if it just came to him, he blurted out "Selena!"

As the other four looked over to him, each displaying different states of confusion, he felt a sweat drop falling down his neck as he looked directly at Moony and continued with his thought process.

"I mean, as your name. You don’t have one, right? Well what about ‘Selena’? It’s a Greek name that means ‘Moon.’ I think... it suits you..." the Boy Wonder trailed off, sheepishly.

Looking at him in mild surprise as he actually spent time thinking about it, Moony blinked a couple of times before looking back up at the moon, thinking.

_‘Selena... huh? It sounds... right.’_

Releasing a shaky breath, she stared at Robin dead in the eyes, her crimson eyes locking with a pair of ocean blue concealed by the mask, and nodded with a beaming smile. Floating over towards him- albeit low to the floor since her power supply was low, she gave him a gentle hug.

_"I like it... Selena... I have a name now..."_

If the four boys happened to see a light sheen of tears in her eyes, they refrained from saying anything.

As Superboy smiled at the thought of his- well, sister, he guessed- finally having a name, he looked up to the moon once more. This time, though, he could see a descending figure.

It was Superman and the other members of the Justice League.

"Oh. And it looks like Superman’s here. Boy do we keep our promises or what?" joked Kid Flash, almost as if he couldn’t sense the amount of trouble they were in.

Martian Manhunter, Zatara, Captain Marvel, and Red Tornado could be seen flying behind the Kryptonian hero, with Captain Atom, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Hawkwoman, and the first Green Lantern, Hal Jordan not far behind them. The second Green Lantern, John Stewart (Robin remembers him from when Kiara complained about how stuffy he was)floated alongside them as his ring was currently holding up a platform for the Leaguers who can't fly; Black Canary, Aquaman, Batman, Cosmic Link and Green Arrow.

Cosmic Link, ever the impatient hero, pretty much threw herself off of the platform at towards the injured bird-apprentice below her.

"You- you little brat! Do you have any idea how worried we were?! Batman was practically glued to the computer in the Watchtower trying to find you all!"

As Cosmic Link- Kiara- began to scold them all, Batman walked up to stand beside Superman with Flash flanking his left.

Superboy, ignoring the frantic mother-hen and her scolding, stepped up in front of the original Kryptonian, lifted up the rip in his solar suit and revealed the Same in the center of his chest. At first, his eyes widen in shock as everyone falls quiet- even Kiara stopped with her scolding- only for his eyes to turn cold, turning away from the young clone who developed a look of confusion and hurt on his own features.

"Is that what I think it is?" Batman questioned.

"He doesn't like being called 'it." Kid Flash sassed out, standing next to Superboy.

"I'm Superman's clone!" Superboy shouted out, receiving shocked looks from the Leaguers in return.

"Start talking." Batman ordered as he looked at Robin.

Both Green Lanterns placed Blockbuster inside a green sphere created by their rings as while Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Captain Atom fly next to the two in case the duo needed them for backup.

As Robin explained the events, with Kiara looking at the newly named Selena with a sense of understanding and sympathy, Superman simply spoke with Martian Manhunter- who placed a comforting hand on his shoulder- and Wonder Woman who smiled in sympathy. Superman released a sigh before walking up to Superboy, simply stating that they’d "figure something out. The league will, I mean." before flying off again. Leaving Superboy alone.

"Cadmus will be investigated, all 52 levels but let's make one thing clear-" Batman began, only to be cut off by Flash.

"You should have called." The senior speedster called out.

"End results aside, we're not happy." the Dark Knight growls. "You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."

"What he means is, we were worried that you’d all have been hurt or something." Kiara chirped in.

"I am sorry, but we will." Aqualad stepped up, voicing out.

"Huh?" Kiara blinked, confused.

"Aqualad, stand down." Aquaman commanded.

"Apologies, my king, but no." causing the Atlantean king to raise an eyebrow. "We did good work here tonight, the work you trained us to do. Together on our own we forged something powerful, important."

"If this is about your treatment at the Hall, the three of you-" Flash attempted to mediate, but to no effect.

"The five of us, and it's not." Kid Flash called out.

"Batman, we're ready to do what you taught us, or why teach us at all?" Robin chimed in, as Selena moved behind him, trying to shield herself from the attention of the League. Which both Batman and Cosmic Link noticed. The two shared a look just as Superboy spoke up, loudly.

"Bats, our little bird's growing up!" whined Kiara, leaning against the older male. Said man just grunted as he looked down at his young ward and his apparent tag-along. Great. Another kid. Just what he needed. (Not that he minds, with his inclination to adopting all types of strays.)

Why let them tell us what to do? It's simple. Get on board or get out of the way." Superboy questioned, standing up to the league in a face off while all three protégés and Selena were watching him, before turning back to their mentors surrounded by an air of proud defiance.

Well, it looks like things are about to get interesting.

* * *

**Oh my god, this took so LONG TO DO. I started this chapter in August but with everything going on in my life (Covid-19, starting uni, my father being diagnosed with dementia which is slowly getting worse rather quickly and my other story for marvel) I’ve barely found time to write!  
**

**The next chapter should hopefully be up soon- don’t quote me on that though! Also, I do tend to switch between the hero names and actual names for the characters. I tried not to make it too OOC with the canon characters but- sometimes ideas happen.**

**I hope y’all liked it. If you spot any mistakes just let me know and I’ll work on fixing them!** ****

**Toodles!**

**-Lucy.**


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